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Why does the Design Team feel that UO needs a replacement for notoriety?

Notoriety currently doesn't distinguish between PvP activities and PvNPC activities, which is part of the problem. We felt that the system needed an overhaul because although it was helping most cases, it was restricting roleplay activities for many people, and it was too easily circumvented. Too much of the burden for policing was landing on the software, rather than on the players.

Introduction

This is a FAQ for the new Reputation system that will soon be replacing the current Notoriety system. I have been compiling this FAQ in an effort to aid both players and the Design Team. All credit for this system goes to the Design Team and to all the players who have contributed ideas related to it. This is not my system.

Please note that the answers contained in this FAQ come directly from the Design Team, so what you read here can be considered official. Also note that I am not a member of the Design Team so sending me complaints or suggestions will most likely not have the effect you are looking for.

As you read through the FAQ please be aware that the answers to some questions may change. Also if a question does not have an answer or the answer is incomplete, it is only because I have not yet received a definitive answer for the particular question. -Bob

In January, Designer Dragon posted the following comments on the Crossroads of Britannia web site:

OK, here's the gist of what we are looking into doing for notoriety revisions.

1. Notoriety as you know it goes away.

2. Reputation: Numerous actions in the game that currently affect notoriety will affect your reputation. But reputation is a purely visual thing. It does not affect access to towns, it does not affect name color or target highlighting, etc. It would still affect how NPCs talk to you, and shop discounts. But the intent of reputation is merely to give the NPCs a handle on how to deal with you. And you can use it to better serve your roleplay, if you want. Summoning daemons is going to make you unsavory no matter what, because the general populace of Britannia really doesn't like having more daemons running around. Killing or attacking players does NOT fit into reputation at all; doing the same to monsters and NPCs does, however. Again, the worst this can do is get you labeled as someone whose character does mean things (or good things). A goal for reputation is to allow players to be able to grant each other reputation points (like, spend five of your points to give 1 to someone else--this makes it unexploitable). The overall intent here is to make this into a roleplay thing--it has no real gameplay consequences. As part of this, we'd revise scales and point values for actions and the like, so that it becomes harder to acquire reputation, and so that tackling liches, say, gives more reputation than tackling rats.
3. Criminal flagging: this would be extremely visible--we'd base highlighting on it, you'd see it announced when someone got it and when it wore off, and engaging in combat with it on would extend it. It would also be extended to cover other actions, such as looting from corpses. If you steal from enough people, you might get permanently labeled a criminal.
4. Kill tallies: if you die by a player's hand, directly or indirectly, and are not a criminal, and are not the aggressor in the instance, you can report your choice of all players who did you damage in the course of the battle. You would also get to add money into the pot for bounties. "Red names" and barring from towns and the like would apply to those who have accumulated too many kills--probably five kills more than what you have would show as red. The intent is that the red names will be guys that you the players have identified as scum, and instead of NPK's killing innocents who happen to be red, we'll have a really rough life for red guys who earned it.
5. Guild system: You can buy a guildstone, set it up on a ship or in a house, and recruit members. And two guilds can mutually declare war and then all flagging and the like is bypassed, and you can fight each other to your heart's content. You can change fealty at the guildstone, and the head of the guild is determined by whoever has the most fealty at the time. Basically, most of the details line up with Faramir's description.